Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/239

 CLARK

CLARK

health dejxirtnient of New York citj' and was holding that office in 1899. He is the author of History of the Second Company of the Seventh liegi- tnent {Xntional (htanl) N.Y.S. Militia, 1806-1864 (Vol. I., 1864;; and History of the Seventh Begi- ment of Xew York, 1806-1889 (2 vols., 1890).

CLARK, Ezra, representative, was born in Northani]jton, Mass., Sept. 5, 1813; son of Ezra and Laura (Hunt) Clark, who removed with their family to Brattleboro, Vt., and tlien to Hartford, •Conn., in 1819. He was a representative in the S4th and Both congre.sses, 185.")-59; president of the Hartford board of water commissioners for sixteen years and held other city positions. He died in Hartford, Conn., Sept. 26, 1896.

CLARK, Francis Edward, clergyman, was born at Aylmer, Quebec, Sept. 12, 1851; son of Charles Carey and Lydia Fletcher (Clark) Symmes. His ancestors for many generations had lived in New England. His first American ancestor was the Rev. Zecha- riah Symmes who em- igrated from Canter- bury^, England, in 1636 and was pastor of the First church in Charlestown, Mass. His father and mother died when he was very young and he passed his boyhood in ^ V /* /*/ J' Massachusetts with

an imcle, the Rev. Edward Warren Clark, who legally adopted him, and whose name he took. He was fitted for college at Kimball Union academj", Meriden, N.H.; was graduated at Dartmouth in 1873; from Andover theological seminary in 1876, and was ordained to the Congregational ministry Oct. 19, 1876, when he was installed as pastor over the Willis- ton church in Portland, Me. On Feb. 2, 1881, he organized the young people of his congregation into a society for religious training and social and literary culture, giving it the name of " The Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. ' ' Within a few years organizations of a similar character were formed in many jjarts of the world. The members are ' ' pledged to attendance on a weekly devotional meeting; a montlily con- secration service with roll-call of active members; a comprehen.sive and flexible system of commit- tee work; and a full subordination to the local church in which each society may exist." The desire for information as to the principles and methods of its operation led to annual confei-ence between the members of such societies, and out

of this grew a central organization of trustees, called the " United Society of Christian En- deavor." At the close of the first seventeen years of this movement, more than fifty-four thou.sand societies, with over three and one- quarter millions of members, had been enrolled in all parts of the world. In 1883 Mr. Clark became pastor of the Phillips Congregational church, at South Boston, Mass. He resigned in 1887 to devote his entire attention to the duties of president of the United Society, and to the editorship of The Golden Rule, afterward The Christian Endeavor World, a journal published in Boston as the organ of the Christian En- deavor movement. In 1888 and 1891 he visited England, by invitation, to explain the character of the movement which he represented, and in 1892 and 1893 made a journey around the world in the interests of the societj', attending large conventions or gatherings of these societies in Australia, Japan, China, India, Turkej", France and England. Again in 1896 and 1897 he visited Europe, India and South Africa for the purpose of attending similar conventions. In 1887 Dart- mouth college conferred upon him the degree of D.D. He is the author of several volumes, the more prominent being: The Children and the Church (1882); The Young People's Prayer Meeting (1884); Danger Signals (1886); Looking out on Life (1887); TJie Mossback Correspondence (1888); Ways and Means of Christian Endeavor (1889); Some Christian Endeavor Saints (1889); Our Journey Around the World (1893); World Wide Chiistian Endeavor (1895); The Great Secret (1897); Felloio Travellers {I8d8).

CLARK, Frederick Gorham, clergyman, was born in Waterl)ury, Conn., Dec. 13, 1819; son of the Rev. Daniel A. and Eliza (Barker) Clark. His father was one of the founders of Amherst college and a prominent Congregational clergy- man. The son was graduated at the Univei-sity of the city of New York in 1842 and from the Union theological seminary in 1845. He was or- dained a minister in the Presbyterian church the same year and was stationed at Greenwich, Conn., 1845-46; pastor at Astoria, N.Y., 1846-52; New York city, 1852-67; Greenwich, Conn., 1867-71; Brooklyn, N.Y., 1874-75; and Troy, N. Y., 1877-86. The University of the city of New York conferred on him the degree of D.D. in 1864. He died in Brooklyn, N.Y., Nov. 18, 1886.

CLARK, George, jurist, was born at Eutaw, Ala., July 18, 1841; son of James B. and Mary (Erwin) Clark. His paternal ancestors were Protestant Irish and settled in Pennsylvania at an early date. His mother was born in Virginia and descended from English ancestors. He en- tered the University of Alabama in the class of 1861. On the fall of Fort Sumter he enlisted as